# Date: 1917-01

LENINIST COLLECTION
ENGELS ON THE STATE AND ON WAR

Engels also has an "Introduction" to the pamphlet by S. Borkheim: "In Memory of the German Murder-Patriots 1806-7" ("Social-Democratic Library," Vol. II, No. XXIV), written 15 December 1887, where it is said, among other things, about the state in Germany: ..."the state becomes more and more alien to the interests of the broad masses of the people and transforms itself into a consortium of agrarians, stock exchange speculators, and big industrialists for the exploitation of the people" (p. 7). There too, concerning the impending world war, which would lead to "universal exhaustion and the establishment of the conditions for the final victory of the working class" (7)... "at the end" of this war "the victory of the proletariat is either already won or in any case inevitable" (8).

* ENGELS: "THE HOUSING QUESTION"

In "On the Housing Question" (1872) there are a number of passages relating to the question of the dictatorship of the proletariat and of the state (in connection with this), which are worth noting:

"How is the housing question to be solved? In present-day society, it is solved in exactly the same way as every other social question is solved: by the gradual economic equalization of supply and demand, a solution which constantly regenerates the question itself, and is therefore no solution at all. How would a *social revolution* solve this question—this depends not only on the circumstances of time and place, but is also bound up with questions going far beyond it, among which the abolition of the antithesis between town and country is one of the most essential. Since we are not engaged in constructing utopian systems for the arrangement of future society, it would be more than idle to enter into this. One thing only is certain—namely, that there are already sufficient dwelling houses in the large towns to remedy immediately any real housing shortage, by a rational utilization of them. This can, of course, only be achieved through the expropriation of the present owners, that is to say, by quartering in their houses homeless workers or workers living in excessively overcrowded dwellings. And as soon as the proletariat has conquered political power, such a measure, dictated by the public welfare, will be just as easy to carry out as any other expropriation and quartering of workers by the present state." (p. 22, 1887 edition).

Here plainly—one of the functions of the dictatorship of the proletariat, one of the tasks of the state (unification of the proletarians) in the transitional epoch from capitalism to full communism. One cannot immediately begin to do such a thing without the revolutionary use of state power.

P. 26—note a very important remark, that such questions as credit, state debts, taxes, etc., are all things very interesting to the bourgeoisie and especially to the petty bourgeoisie, but very little so to the workers. Taxes in the final analysis enter into the costs of production of labor power: ..."State debts! The working class knows it did not incur them, and when it comes to power, it will leave it to those who incurred them to pay them off."

P. 9—... "perhaps in the future the initiative will remain with the French; but the decisive battle can only be fought out in Germany" (and in the same spirit p. 10—from a preface dated 10 January 1887, on the impending revolution, "uprising," on the revolutionary role of "the sons of peasants," the "magnificent army," etc.).

Same, p. 36-37: ..."However, above all (after discussions on the necessity of abolishing the antithesis between town and country), every social revolution must take things as it finds them, and combat the *most glaring evil* with the *means at hand*. And we have already seen above that the housing shortage can be remedied by the expropriation of a part of the luxurious dwellings belonging to the propertied classes and by the forcible quartering in the remainder." (36-7).

(P. 55.) The Paris Commune... the Proudhonists played a large role in it... but its economic measures flowed, to the honor of the Commune, from "simple practical necessity"...

"For this reason these measures—the abolition of night work for bakers, the prohibition of fines in factories, the confiscation of closed factories and workshops and their transfer to workers' associations—corresponded not to the spirit of Proudhon, but to the spirit of German scientific socialism. The only social measure that the Proudhonists carried through was—not to seize the Bank of France, and partly because of this the Commune perished." (55)...

The Blanquists... proclaimed (the manifesto of the refugees of the Commune)... "almost literally, the views of German scientific socialism on the necessity of political action by the proletariat and its dictatorship as the transition to the *abolition of classes* and, *with them, of the state*—views which have been expressed many times already in the Communist Manifesto and elsewhere in scientific socialism." (55-6).

Engels "arrived at" the "abolition" of the state! But it would be ridiculous to carp at this: the essence [lies] in the words together with them, with classes!!

P. 56, in the middle, in passing: ..."in the revolution, in the most violent movement, 'to stand'??"... (a jibe at the word "stand." In passing, a not bad definition of revolution).

P. 57: ..."Since every political party aims at conquering state power, the German Social-Democratic working-men's party necessarily strives for the conquest of power for itself, for the working class, i.e., for a 'class dominion.' By the way, every (italics by Engels) true proletarian party, from the English Chartists onward, has always put forward class politics, the organization of the proletariat as an independent political party, as the first condition, and the *dictatorship of the proletariat* as the *next* aim of the struggle."

..."It must, moreover, be stated that the 'actual seizure' of all instruments of labor, the taking possession of the entire industry by the working people, is the direct opposite of the Proudhonist 'redemption.' In the latter, the individual worker becomes owner of the dwelling, the peasant farm, the instrument of labor; in the former, the 'working people' becomes collective owner of houses, factories, and instruments of labor, and the enjoyment of them will, at least during a transitional period, hardly be surrendered to individuals or associations without compensation for costs. Just as the abolition of ground rent is not the abolition of ground rent, but its transfer, even if in modified form, to society. The actual seizure of all instruments of labor by the working people therefore excludes by no means the retention of the rental relationship." (68)

"In general (69), the question is not whether the proletariat, when it comes to power, will forcibly take possession of the instruments of production, raw materials, and means of subsistence, whether it will immediately pay compensation for them, or will gradually redeem private property through small installment payments. To want to answer such a question in advance and for all possible cases would be to fabricate utopias, and that I leave to others." (69)